Albrecht Dürer (;
;
hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),
[Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. .] sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an
umlaut) or Duerer, was a German
painter,
printmaker, and
theorist
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...
of the
German Renaissance. Born in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality
woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
,
Giovanni Bellini, and
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
, and from 1512 was patronized by
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
Maximilian I.
Dürer's vast body of work includes
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits,
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
s and books. The woodcuts series are more
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the three ''
Meisterstiche'' (master prints) ''
Knight, Death and the Devil
''Knight, Death and the Devil'' (german: Ritter, Tod und Teufel) is a large 1513 engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, one of the three ''Meisterstiche'' (master prints) completed during a period when he almost ceased to work in paint ...
'' (1513), ''
Saint Jerome in his Study'' (1514), and ''
Melencolia I
''Melencolia I'' is a large 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. The print's central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia – melancholy. Holding her h ...
'' (1514). His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his woodcuts revolutionised the potential of that medium.
Dürer's introduction of
classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of
Italian artists
Listed below are Italian people of note, who are identified with the Italian nation through residential, legal, historical, or cultural means, grouped by their area of notability.
Acting
Actors
* Stefano Accorsi (born 1971), actor, ...
and
German humanists
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the
Northern Renaissance
The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...
. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve principles of mathematics,
perspective, and
ideal proportions.
Biography
Early life (1471–1490)
![Self-portrait at 13 by Albrecht Dürer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Self-portrait_at_13_by_Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer.jpg)
Dürer was born on 21 May 1471, the third child and second son of Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper, who married in 1467 and had eighteen children together.
[Brand Philip & Anzelewsky (1978–79), 11] Albrecht Dürer the Elder (originally Albrecht Ajtósi) was a successful
goldsmith
A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...
who by 1455 had moved to Nuremberg from Ajtós, near
Gyula in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
.
He married Holper, his master's daughter, when he himself qualified as a master.
One of Albrecht's brothers,
Hans Dürer, was also a painter and trained under him. Another of Albrecht's brothers, Endres Dürer, took over their father's business and was a master goldsmith.
[Brion (1960), 16] The German name "Dürer" is a translation from the Hungarian, "Ajtósi".
Initially, it was "Türer", meaning doormaker, which is "ajtós" in Hungarian (from "ajtó", meaning door). A door is featured in the
coat-of-arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...
the family acquired. Albrecht Dürer the Younger later changed "Türer", his father's diction of the family's surname, to "Dürer", to adapt to the local Nuremberg dialect.
[Bartrum, 93, note 1]
![Coat of Arms of Albrecht Dürer MET DP816462](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Coat_of_Arms_of_Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_MET_DP816462.jpg)
Dürer's godfather
Anton Koberger
Anton Koberger (c. 1440/1445 – 3 October 1513) was the German goldsmith, printer and publisher who printed and published the ''Nuremberg Chronicle'', a landmark of incunabula, and was a successful bookseller of works from other printers. In 147 ...
left goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher in the year of Dürer's birth. He became the most successful publisher in Germany, eventually owning twenty-four
printing-press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
es and a number of offices in Germany and abroad. Koberger's most famous publication was the ''
Nuremberg Chronicle
The ''Nuremberg Chronicle'' is an illustrated encyclopedia consisting of world historical accounts, as well as accounts told through biblical paraphrase. Subjects include human history in relation to the Bible, illustrated mythological creatures, ...
'', published in 1493 in German and Latin editions. It contained an unprecedented 1,809
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
illustrations (albeit with many repeated uses of the same block) by the
Wolgemut workshop. Dürer may have worked on some of these, as the work on the project began while he was with Wolgemut.
[ Giulia Bartrum, "Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy", British Museum Press, 2002, ]
Because Dürer left autobiographical writings and was widely known by his mid-twenties, his life is well documented in several sources. After a few years of school, Dürer learned the basics of goldsmithing and drawing from his father. Though his father wanted him to continue his training as a goldsmith, he showed such a precocious talent in drawing that he started as an apprentice to
Michael Wolgemut
Michael Wolgemut (formerly spelt ''Wohlgemuth''; 143430 November 1519) was a German painter and printmaker, who ran a workshop in Nuremberg. He is best known as having taught the young Albrecht Dürer.
The importance of Wolgemut as an artist res ...
at the age of fifteen in 1486.
[Brand Philip & Anzelewsky (1978–79), 10] A self-portrait, a drawing in
silverpoint
Silverpoint (one of several types of metalpoint) is a traditional drawing technique first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts.
History
A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso ...
, is dated 1484 (
Albertina, Vienna) "when I was a child", as his later inscription says. The drawing is one of the earliest surviving children's drawings of any kind, and, as Dürer's Opus One, has helped define his oeuvre as deriving from, and always linked to, himself.
Joseph Koerner
Joseph Leo Koerner (born June 17, 1958) is an American art historian and filmmaker. He is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and, since 2008, Senior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard Universi ...
, "The Moment of Self-Portraiture in Renaissance Art", University of Chicago Press, 1993 Wolgemut was the leading artist in Nuremberg at the time, with a large workshop producing a variety of works of art, in particular woodcuts for books. Nuremberg was then an important and prosperous city, a centre for publishing and many luxury trades. It had strong links with
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, especially
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, a relatively short distance across the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
.
''Wanderjahre'' and marriage (1490–1494)
![Albrecht-self](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Albrecht-self.jpg)
After completing his apprenticeship, Dürer followed the common German custom of taking ''
Wanderjahre
In a certain tradition, the journeyman years () are a time of travel for several years after completing apprenticeship as a craftsman. The tradition dates back to medieval times and is still alive in France, Scandinavia and the German-speaking c ...
''—in effect
gap year
A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is typically a year-long break before or after college/university during which students engage in various educational and developmental activities, such as travel or some type of regular work. Gap yea ...
s—in which the apprentice learned skills from artists in other areas; Dürer was to spend about four years away. He left in 1490, possibly to work under
Martin Schongauer
Martin Schongauer (c. 1450–53, Colmar – 2 February 1491, Breisach), also known as Martin Schön ("Martin beautiful") or Hübsch Martin ("pretty Martin") by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important ...
, the leading engraver of Northern Europe, but who died shortly before Dürer's arrival at
Colmar in 1492. It is unclear where Dürer travelled in the intervening period, though it is likely that he went to
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. In Colmar, Dürer was welcomed by Schongauer's brothers, the goldsmiths Caspar and Paul and the painter Ludwig. In 1493 Dürer went to
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
, where he would have experienced the sculpture of
Nikolaus Gerhaert
Nikolaus Gerhaert (c.1420 – 28 June 1473), also known as Nikolaus Gerhaert van Leyden, was a Dutch sculptor, although aside from his sculptures, few details are known of his life. He worked in both stone and wood.
Biography
Gerhaert is consi ...
. Dürer's first painted self-portrait (now in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
) was painted at this time, probably to be sent back to his fiancée in Nuremberg.
In early 1492 Dürer travelled to
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
to stay with another brother of Martin Schongauer, the goldsmith Georg. Very soon after his return to Nuremberg, on 7 July 1494, at the age of 23, Dürer was married to
Agnes Frey following an arrangement made during his absence. Agnes was the daughter of a prominent brass worker (and amateur harpist) in the city. However, no children resulted from the marriage, and with Albrecht the Dürer name died out. The marriage between Agnes and Albrecht was not a generally happy one, as indicated by the letters of Dürer in which he quipped to
Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer (5 December 1470 – 22 December 1530) was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, imperial counsellor and a member of the governing City ...
in an extremely rough tone about his wife. He called her an "old crow" and made other vulgar remarks. Pirckheimer also made no secret of his antipathy towards Agnes, describing her as a miserly shrew with a bitter tongue, who helped cause Dürer's death at a young age.
One author speculates that Albrecht was bisexual, if not homosexual, due to several of his works containing themes of homosexual desire, as well as the intimate nature of his correspondence with certain very close male friends.
First journey to Italy (1494–1495)
![Agnes Duerer 1494](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Agnes_Duerer_1494.jpg)
Within three months of his marriage, Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps stimulated by an outbreak of
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
in Nuremberg. He made watercolour sketches as he traveled over the Alps. Some have survived and others may be deduced from accurate landscapes of real places in his later work, for example his engraving ''Nemesis''.
In Italy, he went to Venice to study its more advanced artistic world.
[Lee, Raymond L. & Alistair B. Fraser. (2001) ''The Rainbow Bridge'', Penn State Press. .] Through Wolgemut's tutelage, Dürer had learned how to make prints in
drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...
and design woodcuts in the German style, based on the works of Schongauer and the
Housebook Master
Master of the Housebook and Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet are two names used for an engraver and painter working in South Germany in the last quarter of the 15th century. He is apparently the first artist to use drypoint, a form of engraving, ...
.
He also would have had access to some Italian works in Germany, but the two visits he made to Italy had an enormous influence on him. He wrote that
Giovanni Bellini was the oldest and still the best of the artists in Venice. His drawings and engravings show the influence of others, notably
Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Antonio del Pollaiuolo ( , , ; 17 January 1429/14334 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith during the Italian Rena ...
, with his interest in the proportions of the body;
Lorenzo di Credi
Lorenzo di Credi (1456/59 – January 12, 1537) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor best known for his paintings of religious subjects. He is most famous for having worked in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio at the same time a ...
; and
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order ...
, whose work he produced copies of while training. Dürer probably also visited
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
and
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
on this trip.
Return to Nuremberg (1495–1505)
On his return to
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
in 1495, Dürer opened his own workshop (being married was a requirement for this). Over the next five years, his style increasingly integrated Italian influences into underlying Northern forms. Arguably his best works in the first years of the workshop were his woodcut prints, mostly religious, but including secular scenes such as ''The Men's Bath House'' (ca. 1496). These were larger and more finely cut than the great majority of German woodcuts hitherto, and far more complex and balanced in composition.
It is now thought unlikely that Dürer cut any of the woodblocks himself; this task would have been performed by a specialist craftsman. However, his training in Wolgemut's studio, which made many carved and painted altarpieces and both designed and cut woodblocks for woodcut, evidently gave him great understanding of what the technique could be made to produce, and how to work with block cutters. Dürer either drew his design directly onto the woodblock itself, or glued a paper drawing to the block. Either way, his drawings were destroyed during the cutting of the block.
![Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Oswolt Krel - WGA6934](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_Portrait_of_Oswolt_Krel_-_WGA6934.jpg)
His series of sixteen designs for the ''Apocalypse'' is dated 1498, as is his engraving of ''
St. Michael Fighting the Dragon''. He made the first seven scenes of the ''Great Passion'' in the same year, and a little later, a series of eleven on the
Holy Family
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the fir ...
and saints. The ''
Seven Sorrows Polyptych
The ''Seven Sorrows Polyptych'' is an oil on panel painting by Albrecht Dürer. The painting includes a central picture (108 x 43 cm), currently at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, and seven surrounding panels (measuring some 60 x 46 cm) wh ...
'', commissioned by
Frederick III of Saxony
Frederick III (17 January 1463 – 5 May 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise (German ''Friedrich der Weise''), was Elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the worldly protection of his subject Martin Luther.
Freder ...
in 1496, was executed by Dürer and his assistants c. 1500. In 1502, Dürer's father died. Around 1503–1505 Dürer produced the first 17 of a set illustrating the ''
Life of the Virgin
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the ...
'', which he did not finish for some years. Neither these nor the ''Great Passion'' were published as sets until several years later, but prints were sold individually in considerable numbers.
During the same period Dürer trained himself in the difficult art of using the
burin to make engravings. It is possible he had begun learning this skill during his early training with his father, as it was also an essential skill of the goldsmith. In 1496 he executed the ''Prodigal Son'', which the Italian Renaissance art historian
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
singled out for praise some decades later, noting its Germanic quality. He was soon producing some spectacular and original images, notably ''Nemesis'' (1502), ''The Sea Monster'' (1498), and ''Saint Eustace'' (c. 1501), with a highly detailed landscape background and animals. His landscapes of this period, such as ''Pond in the Woods'' and ''Willow Mill'', are quite different from his earlier watercolours. There is a much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere, rather than depicting topography. He made a number of
Madonnas, single religious figures, and small scenes with comic peasant figures. Prints are highly portable and these works made Dürer famous throughout the main artistic centres of Europe within a very few years.
![Albrecht Dürer Betende Hände](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_Betende_H%C3%A4nde.jpg)
The Venetian artist
Jacopo de' Barbari
Jacopo de' Barbari, sometimes known or referred to as de'Barbari, de Barberi, de Barbari, Barbaro, Barberino, Barbarigo or Barberigo (c. 1460/70 – before 1516), was an Italian painter, printmaker and miniaturist with a highly individual style. H ...
, whom Dürer had met in Venice, visited Nuremberg in 1500, and Dürer said that he learned much about the new developments in
perspective,
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
, and
proportion
Proportionality, proportion or proportional may refer to:
Mathematics
* Proportionality (mathematics), the property of two variables being in a multiplicative relation to a constant
* Ratio, of one quantity to another, especially of a part compare ...
from him.
De' Barbari was unwilling to explain everything he knew, so Dürer began his own studies, which would become a lifelong preoccupation. A series of extant drawings show Dürer's experiments in human proportion, leading to the famous engraving of ''
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
'' (1504), which shows his subtlety while using the burin in the texturing of flesh surfaces.
This is the only existing engraving signed with his full name.
Dürer created large numbers of preparatory drawings, especially for his paintings and engravings, and many survive, most famously the ''
Betende Hände'' (''Praying Hands'') from circa 1508, a study for an apostle in the Heller altarpiece. He continued to make images in watercolour and
bodycolour
Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...
(usually combined), including a number of still lifes of meadow sections or animals, including his ''
Young Hare'' (1502) and the ''
Great Piece of Turf'' (1503).
Second journey to Italy (1505–1507)
In Italy, he returned to painting, at first producing a series of works executed in
tempera
Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...
on
linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
. These include portraits and altarpieces, notably, the
Paumgartner altarpiece and the ''
Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...
''. In early 1506, he returned to Venice and stayed there until the spring of 1507.
By this time Dürer's engravings had attained great popularity and were being copied. In Venice he was given a valuable commission from the emigrant German community for the church of
San Bartolomeo. This was the altar-piece known as the ''
Adoration of the Virgin'' or the ''Feast of Rose Garlands''. It includes portraits of members of Venice's German community, but shows a strong Italian influence. It was later acquired by the Emperor
Rudolf II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...
and taken to Prague.
Nuremberg and the masterworks (1507–1520)
}
Despite the regard in which he was held by the Venetians, Dürer returned to Nuremberg by mid-1507, remaining in Germany until 1520. His reputation had spread throughout Europe and he was on friendly terms and in communication with most of the major artists including
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
.
Between 1507 and 1511 Dürer worked on some of his most celebrated paintings: ''
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
'' (1507), ''
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
The ''Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand'' is an oil painting by Albrecht Dürer, dating to 1508 and now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria. It is signed on a cartouche which hangs from the artist's self-portrait in the center, saying ' ...
'' (1508, for Frederick of Saxony), ''Virgin with the Iris'' (1508), the altarpiece ''Assumption of the Virgin'' (1509, for Jacob Heller of Frankfurt), and ''
Adoration of the Trinity
''Adoration of the Trinity'' (also known as Landauer Altarpiece; German: ''Allerheiligenbild'' or ''Landauer Altar'') is an oil-on-panel painting by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, executed in 1511 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Mu ...
'' (1511, for Matthaeus Landauer). During this period he also completed two woodcut series, the ''Great Passion'' and the ''Life of the Virgin'', both published in 1511 together with a second edition of the ''Apocalypse'' series. The post-Venetian woodcuts show Dürer's development of
chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
modelling effects, creating a mid-tone throughout the print to which the highlights and shadows can be contrasted.
Other works from this period include the thirty-seven ''Little Passion'' woodcuts, first published in 1511, and a set of fifteen small engravings on the same theme in 1512. Complaining that painting did not make enough money to justify the time spent when compared to his prints, he produced no paintings from 1513 to 1516. In 1513 and 1514 Dürer created his three most famous
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
s: ''
Knight, Death and the Devil
''Knight, Death and the Devil'' (german: Ritter, Tod und Teufel) is a large 1513 engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, one of the three ''Meisterstiche'' (master prints) completed during a period when he almost ceased to work in paint ...
'' (1513, probably based on
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
's ''
Handbook of a Christian Knight
The ''Handbook of a Christian Knight'' ( lat, Enchiridion militis Christiani), sometimes translated as ''The Manual of a Christian Knight'' or ''The Handbook of the Christian Soldier'', is a work written by Dutch scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam in ...
''), ''
St. Jerome in His Study'', and the much-debated ''
Melencolia I'' (both 1514, the year Dürer's mother died). Further outstanding pen and ink drawings of Dürer's period of art work of 1513 were drafts for his friend Pirckheimer. These drafts were later used to design
Lusterweibchen chandeliers, combining an
antler
Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...
with a wooden sculpture.
In 1515, he created his ''
woodcut of a Rhinoceros'' which had arrived in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
from a written description and sketch by another artist, without ever seeing the animal himself. An image of the
Indian rhinoceros
}
The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also called the Indian rhino, greater one-horned rhinoceros or great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red Li ...
, the image has such force that it remains one of his best-known and was still used in some German school science text-books as late as last century.
In the years leading to 1520 he produced a wide range of works, including the woodblocks for the first western printed star charts in 1515 and portraits in tempera on linen in 1516. His only experiments with
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
came in this period, producing five between 1515–1516 and a sixth in 1518; a technique he may have abandoned as unsuited to his aesthetic of methodical, classical form.
Patronage of Maximilian I
From 1512,
Maximilian I became Dürer's major patron. He commissioned ''
The Triumphal Arch
The ''Triumphal Arch'' (also known as the ''Arch of Maximilian I'', german: Ehrenpforte Maximilians I.) is a 16th-century monumental woodcut print commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The composite image was printed on 36 lar ...
'', a vast work printed from 192 separate blocks, the symbolism of which is partly informed by Pirckheimer's translation of
Horapollo Horapollo (from Horus Apollo; grc-gre, Ὡραπόλλων) is the supposed author of a treatise, titled ''Hieroglyphica'', on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation by one Philippus, dating to about the 5th century.
Life
Horapollo is ...
's ''Hieroglyphica''. The design program and explanations were devised by
Johannes Stabius
Johannes Stabius (Johann Stab) (1450–1522) was an Austrian cartographer and astronomer of Vienna who developed, around 1500, the heart-shape (cordiform) projection map later developed further by Johannes Werner. It is called the '' Werner map p ...
, the architectural design by the master builder and court-painter Jörg Kölderer and the woodcutting itself by
Hieronymous Andreae, with Dürer as designer-in-chief. ''The Arch'' was followed by ''
The Triumphal Procession'', the program of which was worked out in 1512 by
Marx Treitz-Saurwein and includes woodcuts by
Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer (12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Danube S ...
and
Hans Springinklee
Hans Springinklee (c.1490/c.1495 – c.1540) was a German artist from Nuremberg, best known for his woodcuts.British Museum bio, see refs below. He was a pupil of Albrecht Dürer.
Life
Little written evidence remains of Springinklee's life ...
, as well as Dürer.
Dürer worked with pen on the marginal images for an edition of the Emperor's printed Prayer-Book; these were quite unknown until facsimiles were published in 1808 as part of the first book published in
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. Dürer's work on the book was halted for an unknown reason, and the decoration was continued by artists including
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...
and
Hans Baldung
Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered th ...
. Dürer also made several portraits of the Emperor, including one shortly before Maximilian's death in 1519.
Maximilian was a very cash-strapped prince who sometimes failed to pay, yet turned out to be Dürer's most important patron. In his court, artists and learned men were respected, which was not common at that time (later, Dürer commented that in Germany, as a non-noble, he was treated as a parasite). Pirckheimer (who he met in 1495, before entering the service of Maximilian) was also an important personage in the court and great cultural patron, who had a strong influence on Dürer as his tutor in classical knowledge and humanistic critical methodology, as well as collaborator.
In Maximilian's court, Dürer also collaborated with a great number of other brilliant artists and scholars of the time who became his friends, like
Johannes Stabius
Johannes Stabius (Johann Stab) (1450–1522) was an Austrian cartographer and astronomer of Vienna who developed, around 1500, the heart-shape (cordiform) projection map later developed further by Johannes Werner. It is called the '' Werner map p ...
,
Konrad Peutinger
Conrad Peutinger (14 October 1465 – 28 December 1547) was a German humanist, jurist, diplomat, politician, economist and archaeologist (serving as Emperor Maximilian I's chief archaeological adviser). A senior official in the municipal governme ...
,
Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes (german: Konrad Celtes; la, Conradus Celtis (Protucius); 1 February 1459 – 4 February 1508) was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia (nowadays part of Bavaria). He led the ...
, and Hans Tscherte (an imperial architect).
Dürer manifested a strong pride in his ability, as a prince of his profession. One day, the emperor, trying to show Dürer an idea, tried to sketch with the charcoal himself, but always broke it. Dürer took the charcoal from Maximilian's hand, finished the drawing and told him: "This is my scepter."
In another occasion, Maximilian noticed that the ladder Dürer used was too short and unstable, thus told a noble to hold it for him. The noble refused, saying that it was beneath him to serve a non-noble. Maximilian then came to hold the ladder himself, and told the noble that he could make a noble out of a peasant any day, but he could not make an artist like Dürer out of a noble.
This story and a 1849 painting depicting it by have become relevant recently. This nineteenth-century painting shows Dürer painting a mural at
St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
St. Stephen's Cathedral (german: Stephansdom) is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Ordo Praedicato ...
. Apparently, this reflects a seventeenth-century "artists' legend" about the previously mentioned encounter (in which the emperor held the ladder) – that this encounter corresponds with the period Dürer was working on the Viennese murals. In 2020, during restoration work, art connoisseurs discovered a piece of handwriting now attributed to Dürer, suggesting that the Nuremberg master had actually participated in creating the murals at St. Stephen's Cathedral. In the recent 2022 Dürer exhibition in Nuremberg (in which the drawing technique is also traced and connected to Dürer's other works), the identity of the commissioner is discussed. Now the painting of Siegert (and the legend associated with it) is used as evidence to suggest that this was Maximilian. Dürer is historically recorded to have entered the emperor's service in 1511, and the mural's date is calculated to be around 1505, but it is possible they have known and worked with each other earlier than 1511.
Cartographic and astronomical works
![Albrecht Dürer - The Northern Hemisphere of the Celestial Globe - WGA7195](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_The_Northern_Hemisphere_of_the_Celestial_Globe_-_WGA7195.jpg)
Dürer's exploration of space led to a relationship and cooperation with the court astronomer
Johannes Stabius
Johannes Stabius (Johann Stab) (1450–1522) was an Austrian cartographer and astronomer of Vienna who developed, around 1500, the heart-shape (cordiform) projection map later developed further by Johannes Werner. It is called the '' Werner map p ...
. Stabius also often acted as Dürer's and Maximilian's go-between for their financial problems.
In 1515 Dürer and Stabius created the first world map projected on a solid geometric sphere. Also in 1515, Stabius, Dürer and the astronomer
Konrad Heinfogel produced the first planispheres of both southern and northerns hemispheres, as well as the first printed celestial maps, which prompted the revival of interest in the field of uranometry throughout Europe.
Journey to the Netherlands (1520–1521)
Maximilian's death came at a time when Dürer was concerned he was losing "my sight and freedom of hand" (perhaps caused by arthritis) and increasingly affected by the writings of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
. In July 1520 Dürer made his fourth and last major journey, to renew the Imperial pension Maximilian had given him and to secure the patronage of the new emperor,
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infan ...
, who was to be crowned at
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
. Dürer journeyed with his wife and her maid via the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and then to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, , where he was well received and produced numerous drawings in silverpoint, chalk and charcoal. In addition to attending the coronation, he visited Cologne (where he admired the painting of
Stefan Lochner),
Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
,
's-Hertogenbosch
s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...
,
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
(where he saw
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
's ''
Madonna of Bruges''),
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
(where he admired
van Eyck Van Eyck or Van Eijk () is a Dutch toponymic surname. ''Eijck'', ''Eyck'', ''Eyk'' and ''Eijk'' are all archaic spellings of modern Dutch ("oak") and the surname literally translates as "from/of oak". However, in most cases, the family name refers ...
's ''
Ghent altarpiece
The ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', also called the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' ( nl, De aanbidding van het Lam Gods), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420 ...
''), and
Zeeland
, nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge")
, anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem")
, image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg
, map_alt =
, m ...
.
Dürer took a large stock of prints with him and wrote in his diary to whom he gave, exchanged or sold them, and for how much. This provides rare information of the monetary value placed on prints at this time. Unlike paintings, their sale was very rarely documented. While providing valuable documentary evidence, Dürer's Netherlandish diary also reveals that the trip was not a profitable one. For example, Dürer offered his last portrait of Maximilian to his daughter,
Margaret of Austria, but eventually traded the picture for some white cloth after Margaret disliked the portrait and declined to accept it. During this trip he also met
Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who ...
,
Jan Provoost
Jan Provoost, or Jean Provost, or Jan Provost (1462/65 – January 1529) was a Belgian painter born in Mons.
Provost was a prolific master who left his early workshop in Valenciennes to run two workshops, one in Bruges, where he was made a burgh ...
,
Gerard Horenbout,
Jean Mone,
Joachim Patinir
Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier (c. 1480 – 5 October 1524), was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market ...
and
Tommaso Vincidor
Tommaso di Andrea Vincidor (1493 – 1536) was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect who trained with Raphael and spent most of his career in the Netherlands. He was also called Tommaso Vincitore, Tommaso da Bologna and Thomas Polonier ...
, though he did not, it seems, meet
Quentin Matsys
Quentin Matsys ( nl, Quinten Matsijs) (1466–1530) was a Flemish painter in the Early Netherlandish tradition. He was born in Leuven. There is a tradition alleging that he was trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter. Matsys was activ ...
.
Having secured his pension, Dürer returned home in July 1521, having caught an undetermined illness, which afflicted him for the rest of his life, and greatly reduced his rate of work.
Final years, Nuremberg (1521–1528)
![Salvator Mundi, by Albrecht Dürer, MET](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Salvator_Mundi%2C_by_Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer%2C_MET.jpg)
On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer worked on a number of grand projects with religious themes, including a crucifixion scene and a
Sacra conversazione
In art, a (; plural: ''sacre conversazioni''), meaning holy (or sacred) conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of sain ...
, though neither was completed. This may have been due in part to his declining health, but perhaps also because of the time he gave to the preparation of his theoretical works on geometry and perspective, the proportions of men and horses, and
fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
.
However, one consequence of this shift in emphasis was that during the last years of his life, Dürer produced comparatively little as an artist. In painting, there was only a portrait of
Hieronymus Holtzschuher, a
''Madonna and Child'' (1526),
''Salvator Mundi'' (1526), and two panels showing
St. John with
St. Peter in
background
Background may refer to:
Performing arts and stagecraft
* Background actor
* Background artist
* Background light
* Background music
* Background story
* Background vocals
* ''Background'' (play), a 1950 play by Warren Chetham-Strode
Reco ...
and
St. Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
with
St. Mark in the
background
Background may refer to:
Performing arts and stagecraft
* Background actor
* Background artist
* Background light
* Background music
* Background story
* Background vocals
* ''Background'' (play), a 1950 play by Warren Chetham-Strode
Reco ...
. This last great work, ''
the Four Apostles
''The Four Apostles'' is a panel painting by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. It was finished in 1526, and is the last of his large works. It depicts the four apostles larger-than-life-size. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian I obt ...
'', was given by Dürer to the City of Nuremberg—although he was given 100 guilders in return.
As for engravings, Dürer's work was restricted to portraits and illustrations for his treatise. The portraits include Cardinal-Elector
Albert of Mainz
Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (german: Albrecht von Brandenburg; 28 June 149024 September 1545) was a German cardinal, elector, Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.
Biography Early career
Bo ...
;
Frederick the Wise
Frederick III (17 January 1463 – 5 May 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise ( German ''Friedrich der Weise''), was Elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1525, who is mostly remembered for the worldly protection of his subject Martin Luther.
Frede ...
, elector of Saxony; the
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
scholar Willibald Pirckheimer;
Philipp Melanchthon, and Erasmus of Rotterdam. For those of
the Cardinal
''The Cardinal'' is a 1963 American drama film produced independently, directed by Otto Preminger and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was written by Robert Dozier, based on the novel of the same name (1950) by Henry Morton Robi ...
, Melanchthon, and Dürer's final major work, a drawn portrait of the Nuremberg patrician Ulrich Starck, Dürer depicted the sitters in profile.
Despite complaining of his lack of a formal classical education, Dürer was greatly interested in intellectual matters and learned much from his boyhood friend
Willibald Pirckheimer
Willibald Pirckheimer (5 December 1470 – 22 December 1530) was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, imperial counsellor and a member of the governing City ...
, whom he no doubt consulted on the content of many of his images. He also derived great satisfaction from his friendships and correspondence with Erasmus and other scholars. Dürer succeeded in producing two books during his lifetime. "The Four Books on Measurement" were published at Nuremberg in 1525 and was the first book for adults on
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
in German,
as well as being cited later by
Galileo
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
and
Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...
. The other, a work on city fortifications, was published in 1527. "The Four Books on Human Proportion" were published posthumously, shortly after his death in 1528.
Dürer died in Nuremberg at the age of 56, leaving an estate valued at 6,874 florins – a considerable sum. He is buried in the ''Johannisfriedhof'' cemetery.
His large house (purchased in 1509 from the heirs of the astronomer
Bernhard Walther), where his workshop was located and where his widow lived until her death in 1539, remains a prominent Nuremberg landmark.
Dürer and the Reformation
Dürer's writings suggest that he may have been sympathetic to Luther's ideas, though it is unclear if he ever left the Catholic Church. Dürer wrote of his desire to draw Luther in his diary in 1520: "And God help me that I may go to Dr. Martin Luther; thus I intend to make a portrait of him with great care and engrave him on a copper plate to create a lasting memorial of the Christian man who helped me overcome so many difficulties." In a letter to
Nicholas Kratzer in 1524, Dürer wrote, "because of our Christian faith we have to stand in scorn and danger, for we are reviled and called heretics". Most tellingly, Pirckheimer wrote in a letter to Johann Tscherte in 1530: "I confess that in the beginning I believed in Luther, like our Albert of blessed memory ... but as anyone can see, the situation has become worse." Dürer may even have contributed to the Nuremberg City Council's mandating Lutheran sermons and services in March 1525. Notably, Dürer had contacts with various reformers, such as
Zwingli
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...
,
Andreas Karlstadt, Melanchthon, Erasmus and
Cornelius Grapheus
Cornelius Grapheus (1482 – 19 December 1558), Latinized from Cornelis De Schrijver, was a secretary to the city of Antwerp and writer.
Life
Grapheus was born in Aalst, County of Flanders, in 1482. His brother was Joannes Grapheus, the p ...
from whom Dürer received Luther's ''
Babylonian Captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...
'' in 1520. Yet
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
and C. Grapheus are better said to be Catholic change agents. Also, from 1525, "the year that saw the peak and collapse of the
Peasants' War
This is a chronological list of conflicts in which peasants played a significant role.
Background
The history of peasant wars spans over two thousand years. A variety of factors fueled the emergence of the peasant revolt phenomenon, including:
...
, the artist can be seen to distance himself somewhat from the
utheranmovement..."
![Landscape with a Large Cannon MET MM7867](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Landscape_with_a_Large_Cannon_MET_MM7867.jpg)
Dürer's later works have also been claimed to show
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
sympathies. His 1523 ''
The Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
'' woodcut has often been understood to have an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...
theme, focusing as it does on Christ espousing the
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
, as well as the inclusion of the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
ic cup, an expression of Protestant
utraquism
Utraquism (from the Latin ''sub utraque specie'', meaning "under both kinds") or Calixtinism (from chalice; Latin: ''calix'', mug, borrowed from Greek ''kalyx'', shell, husk; Czech: kališníci) was a belief amongst Hussites, a reformist Christi ...
, although this interpretation has been questioned. The delaying of the engraving of
St Philip, completed in 1523 but not distributed until 1526, may have been due to Dürer's uneasiness with images of saints; even if Dürer was not an
iconoclast
Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
, in his last years he evaluated and questioned the role of art in religion.
Legacy and influence
Dürer exerted a huge influence on the artists of succeeding generations, especially in printmaking, the medium through which his contemporaries mostly experienced his art, as his paintings were predominantly in private collections located in only a few cities. His success in spreading his reputation across Europe through prints was undoubtedly an inspiration for major artists such as Raphael,
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, and
Parmigianino
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bo ...
, all of whom collaborated with printmakers to promote and distribute their work.
His engravings seem to have had an intimidating effect upon his German successors; the "
Little Masters
The Little Masters ("Kleinmeister" in German), were a group of German printmakers who worked in the first half of the 16th century, primarily in engraving. They specialized in very small finely detailed prints, some no larger than a postage stamp. ...
" who attempted few large engravings but continued Dürer's themes in small, rather cramped compositions.
Lucas van Leyden was the only Northern European engraver to successfully continue to produce large engravings in the first third of the 16th century. The generation of Italian engravers who trained in the shadow of Dürer all either directly copied parts of his landscape backgrounds (
Giulio Campagnola
Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...
,
Giovanni Battista Palumba
Giovanni Battista Palumba, also known as the Master I.B. with a Bird (or the Bird etc.), was an Italian printmaker active in the early 16th century, making both engravings and woodcuts; he is generally attributed with respectively 14 and 11 of t ...
,
Benedetto Montagna and
), or whole prints (
Marcantonio Raimondi
Marcantonio Raimondi, often called simply Marcantonio (c. 1470/82 – c. 1534), was an Italian engraver, known for being the first important printmaker whose body of work consists largely of prints copying paintings. He is therefore a key figu ...
and
Agostino Veneziano
Agostino Veneziano ("Venetian Agostino"), whose real name was Agostino de' Musi (c. 1490 – c. 1540), was an important and prolific Italian engraver of the Renaissance.
Life
Veneziano was born in Venice, where he trained as an artist, though ...
). However, Dürer's influence became less dominant after 1515, when Marcantonio perfected his new engraving style, which in turn travelled over the Alps to also dominate Northern engraving.
In painting, Dürer had relatively little influence in Italy, where probably only his altarpiece in Venice was seen, and his German successors were less effective in blending German and Italian styles. His intense and self-dramatizing self-portraits have continued to have a strong influence up to the present, especially on painters in the 19th and 20th century who desired a more dramatic portrait style. Dürer has never fallen from critical favour, and there have been significant revivals of interest in his works in Germany in the ''Dürer Renaissance'' of about 1570 to 1630, in the early nineteenth century, and in German
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
from 1870 to 1945.
The
Lutheran Church
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
commemorates Dürer annually on 6 April, along with
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
,
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...
and
Hans Burgkmair
Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531) was a German Painting, painter and woodcut printmaker.
Background
Hans Burgkmair was born in Augsburg, the son of painter Thomas Burgkmair. His own son, Hans the Younger, later became a painter as well. From ...
.
Theoretical works
In all his theoretical works, in order to communicate his theories in the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
rather than in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, Dürer used graphic expressions based on a
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
, craftsmen's language. For example, "Schneckenlinie" ("snail-line") was his term for a spiral form. Thus, Dürer contributed to the expansion in German prose which Luther had begun with his translation of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
.
[Panofsky (1945)]
''Four Books on Measurement''
Dürer's work on
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
is called the ''Four Books on Measurement'' (''Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt'' or ''Instructions for Measuring with
Compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
and Ruler''). The first book focuses on linear geometry. Dürer's geometric constructions include
helices
A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined helices, ...
,
conchoids and
epicycloid
In geometry, an epicycloid is a plane curve produced by tracing the path of a chosen point on the circumference of a circle—called an ''epicycle''—which rolls without slipping around a fixed circle. It is a particular kind of roulette.
Equati ...
s. He also draws on
Apollonius, and
Johannes Werner
Johann(es) Werner ( la, Ioannes Vernerus; February 14, 1468 – May 1522) was a German mathematician. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, where he became a parish priest. His primary work was in astronomy, mathematics, and geography, although he ...
's 'Libellus super viginti duobus elementis conicis' of 1522.
The second book moves onto two-dimensional geometry, i.e. the construction of regular
polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
s. Here Dürer favours the methods of
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
over
Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' trea ...
. The third book applies these principles of geometry to architecture, engineering and
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
.
In architecture Dürer cites
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
but elaborates his own classical designs and
columns
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...
. In typography, Dürer depicts the geometric construction of the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
, relying on
Italian precedent. However, his construction of the
Gothic alphabet is based upon an entirely different
modular
Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a s ...
system. The fourth book completes the progression of the first and second by moving to three-dimensional forms and the construction of
polyhedra
In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on t ...
. Here Dürer discusses the five
Platonic solid
In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent (identical in shape and size) regular polygons (all angles congruent and all edges c ...
s, as well as seven
Archimedean semi-regular solids, as well as several of his own invention.
In all these, Dürer shows the objects as
nets. Finally, Dürer discusses the
Delian Problem
Doubling the cube, also known as the Delian problem, is an ancient geometric problem. Given the edge of a cube, the problem requires the construction of the edge of a second cube whose volume is double that of the first. As with the related probl ...
and moves on to the 'construzione legittima', a method of depicting a cube in two dimensions through
linear perspective
Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...
. He is thought to be the first to describe a visualization technique used in modern computers,
ray tracing. It was in
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
that Dürer was taught (possibly by
Luca Pacioli or
Bramante
Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...
) the principles of
linear perspective
Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...
, and evidently became familiar with the 'costruzione legittima' in a written description of these principles found only, at this time, in the unpublished treatise of
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...
. He was also familiar with the 'abbreviated construction' as described by Alberti and the geometrical construction of shadows, a technique of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
. Although Dürer made no innovations in these areas, he is notable as the first Northern European to treat matters of visual representation in a scientific way, and with understanding of Euclidean principles. In addition to these geometrical constructions, Dürer discusses in this last book of ''Underweysung der Messung'' an assortment of mechanisms for drawing in perspective from models and provides woodcut illustrations of these methods that are often reproduced in discussions of perspective.
''Four Books on Human Proportion''
Dürer's work on
human proportions is called the ''Four Books on Human Proportion'' (''Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion'') of 1528. The first book was mainly composed by 1512/13 and completed by 1523, showing five differently constructed types of both male and female figures, all parts of the body expressed in fractions of the total height. Dürer based these constructions on both
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
and empirical observations of "two to three hundred living persons",
in his own words. The second book includes eight further types, broken down not into fractions but an
Albertian system, which Dürer probably learned from
Francesco di Giorgio
Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was an Italian architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and writer. As a painter, he belonged to the Sienese School. He was considered a visionary architectural theorist—in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms ...
's 'De harmonica mundi totius' of 1525. In the third book, Dürer gives principles by which the proportions of the figures can be modified, including the mathematical simulation of
convex
Convex or convexity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Convex lens, in optics
Mathematics
* Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points
** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points
** Convex polytop ...
and
concave mirrors; here Dürer also deals with human
physiognomy
Physiognomy (from the Greek , , meaning "nature", and , meaning "judge" or "interpreter") is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the genera ...
. The fourth book is devoted to the theory of movement.
[Schaar, Eckhard. "A Newly Discovered Proportional Study by Dürer in Hamburg". ''Master Drawings'', volume 36, no. 1, 1998. pp. 59-66. ]
Appended to the last book, however, is a self-contained essay on aesthetics, which Dürer worked on between 1512 and 1528, and it is here that we learn of his theories concerning 'ideal beauty'. Dürer rejected Alberti's concept of an objective beauty, proposing a relativist notion of beauty based on variety. Nonetheless, Dürer still believed that truth was hidden within nature, and that there were rules which ordered beauty, even though he found it difficult to define the criteria for such a code. In 1512/13 his three criteria were function ('Nutz'), naïve approval ('Wohlgefallen') and the happy medium ('Mittelmass'). However, unlike Alberti and Leonardo, Dürer was most troubled by understanding not just the abstract notions of beauty but also as to how an artist can create beautiful images. Between 1512 and the final draft in 1528, Dürer's belief developed from an understanding of human creativity as spontaneous or
inspired to a concept of 'selective inward synthesis'.
In other words, that an artist builds on a wealth of visual experiences in order to imagine beautiful things. Dürer's belief in the abilities of a single artist over inspiration prompted him to assert that "one man may sketch something with his pen on half a sheet of paper in one day, or may cut it into a tiny piece of wood with his little iron, and it turns out to be better and more artistic than another's work at which its author labours with the utmost diligence for a whole year".
File:AlbrechtDürer01.jpg, Title page of ''Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion'' showing the monogram signature of artist
File:Durer foot.jpg, Dürer often used multiview orthographic projection
In technical drawing and computer graphics, a multiview projection is a technique of illustration by which a standardized series of orthographic projection, orthographic two-dimensional pictures are constructed to represent the form of a three-di ...
s
File:Durer face transforms.jpg, Dürer's study of human proportions
''Book on Fortification''
In 1527, Dürer also published ''Various Lessons on the Fortification of Cities, Castles, and Localities'' (''Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss und Flecken''). It was printed in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, probably by Hieronymus Andreae and reprinted in 1603 by Johan Janssenn in Arnhem. In 1535 it was also translated into Latin as ''On Cities, Forts, and Castles, Designed and Strengthened by Several Manners: Presented for the Most Necessary Accommodation of War'' (''De vrbibus, arcibus, castellisque condendis, ac muniendis rationes aliquot : praesenti bellorum necessitati accommodatissimae''), published by Christian Wechel (Wecheli/Wechelus) in Paris.
The work is less proscriptively theoretical than his other works, and was soon overshadowed by the Italian theory of polygonal fortification (the ''trace italienne'' – see
Bastion fort), though his designs seem to have had some influence in the eastern German lands and up into the Baltic region.
Fencing
Dürer created many sketches and woodcuts of soldiers and knights over the course of his life. His most significant martial works, however, were made in 1512 as part of his efforts to secure the patronage of Maximilian I. Using existing manuscripts from the Nuremberg Group as his reference, his workshop produced the extensive Οπλοδιδασκαλια sive Armorvm Tractandorvm Meditatio Alberti Dvreri ("Weapon Training, or Albrecht Dürer's Meditation on the Handling of Weapons", MS 26-232). Another manuscript based on the Nuremberg texts as well as one of Hans Talhoffer's works, the untitled Berlin Picture Book (Libr.Pict.A.83), is also thought to have originated in his workshop around this time. These sketches and watercolors show the same careful attention to detail and human proportion as Dürer's other work, and his illustrations of grappling, long sword, dagger, and
messer are among the highest-quality in any fencing manual.
Gallery
File:Albrecht Dürer 012.jpg, ''St Jerome in the Wilderness'', 1495, oil on panel, National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
, London
File:Madonna Haller.jpg, Detail, '' Haller Madonna'', 1505, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington, D.C.
File:Albrecht Dürer 035.jpg, ''Saint Jerome'', 1521, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (; MNAA), also known in English as the National Museum of Ancient Art, is a Portuguese national art museum located in Lisbon. With over 40,000 items spanning a vast collection of painting, sculpture, goldware, fu ...
, Lisbon
File:Albrecht Dürer - Ritratto del padre - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Albrecht Dürer the Elder with a Rosary'', 1490, Galleria degli Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
, Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
File:Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Bernhard von Reesen - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Portrait of Bernhard von Reesen'', 1521, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstand ...
, Dresden
File:Albrecht Dürer 078.jpg, ''Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher'', 1526, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
File:Albrecht Dürer - Bildnis eines unbekannten Mannes.jpg, ''Portrait of a Man'', Prado Museum
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, Madrid
File:Albrecht Dürer - The Expulsion from Paradise (NGA 1943.3.3634).jpg, ''The Expulsion from Paradise'', 1510
File:Albrecht Dürer - Man of Sorrows - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Man of Sorrows''
File:Albrecht Dürer - Head of an Old Man, 1521 - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Head of an Old Man'', 1521
File:Albrecht Dürer - Bearing of the Cross - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Bearing of the Cross''
File:Saint Christopher Facing Left MET DP815920.jpg, ''St. Christopher'', engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
, 1521
File:Albrecht Dürer - Nemesis - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Nemesis'', c. 1501/02
File:Albrecht Dürer - Bearded Saint in a Forest, c. 1516 - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Bearded Saint in a Forest'', c. 1516
File:Albrecht Dürer - The Rhinoceros (NGA 1964.8.697).jpg, ''Rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
'', 1515, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
File:Innsbruck castle courtyard.jpg, ''Innsbruck Castle Courtyard'', 1494, Gouache
Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache ...
and watercolour on paper
File:Chateau-fort-Durer.jpg, Castle Segonzano, 1502, gouache and watercolour on paper
File:Albrecht Dürer - Hare, 1502 - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Young Hare'', (1502), Watercolour and bodycolour ( Albertina, Vienna)
File:Albrecht Dürer - The Large Piece of Turf, 1503 - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Great Piece of Turf'', 1503
File:Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, NGA 74162.jpg, ''Tuft of Cowslips'', 1526, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
List of works
*
List of paintings by Albrecht Dürer
The following is an incomplete list of paintings by the German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer.
See also
* List of engravings by Albrecht Dürer
* List of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer
Sources
*Wolf, Norbert. ''Albrecht Dürer''. Preste ...
*
List of engravings by Albrecht Dürer
The following is a very incomplete list of engravings by the German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften ...
*
List of woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*Bartrum, Giulia. ''Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy''. London: British Museum Press, 2002.
*
Brand Philip, Lotte; Anzelewsky, Fedja. "The Portrait Diptych of Dürer's parents". ''Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art'', Volume 10, No. 1, 1978–79. 5–18
*
Brion, Marcel. ''Dürer''. London:
Thames and Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
, 1960
*
Harbison, Craig. "Dürer and the Reformation: The Problem of the Re-dating of the ''St. Philip'' Engraving". ''The Art Bulletin'', Vol. 58, No. 3, 368–373. September 1976
*
Koerner, Joseph Leo. ''The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art''. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
*Landau David; Parshall, Peter. ''The Renaissance Print''. Yale, 1996.
*
Panofsky, Erwin.
The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer'. NJ: Princeton, 1945.
*Price, David Hotchkiss. ''Albrecht Dürer's Renaissance: Humanism, Reformation and the Art of Faith''. Michigan, 2003. .
*Strauss, Walter L. (ed.). ''The Complete Engravings, Etchings and Drypoints of Albrecht Durer''. Mineola NY: Dover Publications, 1973.
*
Borchert, Till-Holger. ''Van Eyck to Dürer: The Influence of Early Netherlandish painting on European Art, 1430–1530''. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011.
*Wolf, Norbert. ''Albrecht Dürer''. Taschen, 2010.
*Hoffmann, Rainer. ''Im Paradies - Adam und Eva und der Sündenfall - Albrecht Dürers Darstellungen'', Böhlau-Verlag, 2021, ISBN 9783412523852
Further reading
*Campbell Hutchison, Jane. ''Albrecht Dürer: A Biography''. Princeton University Press, 1990.
*Demele, Christine. ''Dürers Nacktheit – Das Weimarer Selbstbildnis.'' Rhema Verlag, Münster 2012,
*Dürer, Albrecht (translated by R.T. Nichol from the Latin text), ''Of the Just Shaping of Letters'', Dover Publications.
*Hart, Vaughan. 'Navel Gazing. On Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve (1504)', ''The International Journal of Arts Theory and History'', 2016, vol.12.1 pp. 1–10 https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9960/CGP/v12i01/1-10
*Korolija Fontana-Giusti, Gordana. "The Unconscious and Space: Venice and the work of Albrecht Dürer", in ''Architecture and the Unconscious'', eds. J. Hendrix and L.Holm, Farnham Surrey: Ashgate, 2016. pp. 27–44, .
*Wilhelm, Kurth (ed.). ''The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Durer'', Dover Publications, 2000.
External links
*
The Strange World of Albrecht Dürer at the
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...
. 14 November 2010 – 13 March 2011
Dürer Prints Close-up Made to accompany The Strange World of Albrecht Dürer at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. 14 November 2010 – 13 March 2011
Selected pages scanned from the original work. Historical Anatomies on the Web.
US National Library of Medicine
The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library.
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...
.
*
*
"Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)".In ''Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
*
Albrecht Durer, Exhibition, Albertina, Vienna 20 September 2019 – 6 January 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durer, Albrecht
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